Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

glow as fast as she could, urging her to move faster as she stumbled like a marionette with only Aurora to prop her up.

Despite Aurora’s best efforts, Yuki’s lumbering foot caught a rock amid the pine needles and she fell onto her face. The impact was enough to shake her more fully conscious and her drowsiness turned to anger as she turned and glared at Aurora. For the first time she saw the hellish light reflected above and Yuki scrambled to her feet and began to run in earnest.

“Let’s go, Aurora, stop goofing around!” she yelled as she tore off. Aurora rolled her eyes and followed after. There was enough illumination from the reflected light that they could see in front of them, their shadows stretching in front of them as they ran away from the conflagration. Yuki pulled up a collar that looked like a turtleneck and covered her mouth and nose and continued running. Aurora masked her face and created a small bubble of ionized air over the back of her hand.

The tang of ozone wasn’t the best of smells, but it beat smoke inhalation. The sterile air had an almost bitter taste to it as she gasped as she ran. Aurora saw the back of her hand visibly darken as particulates in the air were drawn to it. The women ran downhill, half sliding, half running to outpace the flames. The clouds above began to flicker ever brighter as the fire increased in intensity. A hot wind began to flow past them as the superheated air rushed by, as if to goad them into faster flight.

Ahead of them the trees thinned then disappeared. Yuki skidded to a stop on the rocky surface, seeing that there was a sheer drop off, looking back in panic.

“Just go!” Aurora shouted but Yuki desperately shook her head no. Changing direction, Aurora tackled her in a bear hug and, using her momentum, propelled them both off the rocky edge. Her shoulder flared its displeasure at being used before it had totally healed. It had recovered enough she had forgotten about it, but the impact woke it with a vengeance.

Aurora winced as Yuki screamed directly in her ear as they fell downward. Struggling to keep her eyes open she began to fly as well as she could, but they were still dropping precipitously. Her shoulder hurt the longer she held Yuki and the distraction drew away her focus as they plunged downwards into the darkness until they hit the bottom.

Less than a mile away, Gus settled in and activated Electronic Mind and stared at the purple surface of the cube. He felt the pull inside, although there was more resistance as he entered this go around. Not much, but it felt like pushing through gelatin. Once he had squirmed through the rubbery barrier, he found himself floating. Trying to determine if it felt more like being underwater or floating in space, he ultimately decided it was somewhere in the middle.

There had been mandatory zero-g training on Graviton’s station, so the sensation was not altogether unfamiliar. Unlike reality, he found he could propel himself along with thought. Checking his MP, he found that he had not activated flight or any other ability, but he had more influence in this plane of the Quorian than he had in the others he had visited.

Turning to take in the surroundings, he noticed a series of floating islands off to his left. Giant amethyst crystals glowed and pulsated on the undersides of these islands, and Gus could resolve a paved pathway on their flattened tops. He drifted toward the nearest one and found that as he got closer something akin to a magnetic attraction pulled him securely to the surface of the island. Taking a couple steps, he felt as if he were walking normally, none of the sucking feeling of walking through a muddy bog that the magnetic boots often had while on the orbital station.

Besides the path, there was not much on this island, so he followed it until he reached the far edge. Kicking a rock off, it tumbled forward into space, following the trajectory of his kick. Looking down, he could see only billowy lavender clouds, moving imperceptibly. If he peered for a while, he could see brief bursts of what he supposed was lightning, intensifying the deepness of purple for a moment before fading back to normal. There was no thunder that he could detect.

In fact, he did not notice any sound at all. He clapped his hands and noted no noise was produced. He could breathe normally though. An attempt at talking let him feel the vibrations in his throat but as the sound reached his lips it was quickly absorbed by the air around his mouth. He tried a scream to similar effect, leaving him more aware of his blood pumping more notably from the strain of his prolonged scream.

Looking ahead, he saw the next island ahead and above him slightly, so he backed up a bit and took a running jump. He soared upward as if assisted, the effect much like using the Bound ability. He actually overshot the edge but like before was able to change his trajectory and drift down to the next rock.

This island was bigger, having exotic plants populating the sides of the path. As far as he could tell they all looked various shades of purple extending to an almost black on the leaves and stalks. He silently moved ahead and traversed a dozen more islands before he saw a castle looming on a massive island.

Upon reaching it, he saw that it was in severe disrepair, with large sections missing from the walls and ramparts. The broken sections were much higher than the ground, and as Gus attempted to jump up to gain entrance to the castle, he found that he was back to normal in terms of movement. He could not drift or fly either. Looking back at the previous island, the